White Christmas
by livelaughlovemagic
Summary: Written for Jily Secret Santa on Tumblr! I hope christmasatthepotters@tumblr (and anyone else who reads it) likes it! Merry Christmas!


"Potter!" The shrill cry of an irate Lily Evans flooded the sixth year girls' dormitory.

The entire room was covered in a thick blanket of perfectly white snow. Lily's teeth chattered noisily in her icy cold surroundings and her furious breaths were visible, even in the dim light the room offered. She groaned loudly as the enchanted snowflakes continued to cascade from her ceiling. There was only one explanation for this nuisance.

Lily rolled over to shoot a familiar expression of outright disbelief at her best friend, roommate, and fellow victim of James Potter's latest prank, Marlene McKinnon. To her surprise, Marlene was apparently undeterred by the near-arctic temperatures or recent shrieks. She continued to sleep peacefully while bundled up in her nice, warm blankets. Lily, on the other hand, was freezing and very much awake. Shivering, she piled her blankets around her shoulders, reached for her wand, hastily pulled on a pair of boots, and prepared herself to brace the storm.

She trudged through the cold, wet snow while muttering a constant stream of James Potter's name paired with various expletives. As she neared the correct dormitory, the color in her cheeks transformed from the frosty flush of a chilly day to the heated red of pure annoyance that only one person could bring out in her.

Forgetting all pleasantries, she thrust open the door and angrily yelled, "James bloody," she paused for half a moment to catch her breath, "whatever-your-middle-name-is Potter, what on earth did you _do _to my room?" Puffs of angry white air escaped from her lips as she waited for an answer.

James sat up nonchalantly and leaned back onto his pillows. "Alexander," he responded, revealing little expression beyond the signature Potter smirk.

Lily arched an eyebrow at the remark. She tapped her foot impatiently for further explanation.

The smirk still remaining, James answered her unasked question. "My middle name. It's Alexander."

"Right. Of course," she bit out sarcastically. She sighed and moved to lean on the bedpost nearest to her, but immediately halted when she saw something that looked like moldy pizza hanging off of it. Shuddering, she opted to lean against the doorframe, instead.

"Potter," she muttered dangerously, "why is it snowing in my—wait a minute!" She quickly scanned the room again. The sixth year boys' dormitory was a mess. There were clothes strewn all over the place with half-eaten food and candy wrappers decorating the floor. There was only one corner of the room undisturbed by the disarray. A Defense Against the Dark Arts tome was open on the bedside table and the curtains were drawn for privacy. She could only assume that particular bed belonged to Remus Lupin, a fellow Gryffindor prefect and a good friend despite his questionable taste in best mates. A lush, scarlet and gold comforter covered the bed in the farthest right corner. Judging by the Muggle motorcycle magazine on the bedside table and the posters of half-naked girls adorning the walls, she could easily infer Sirius Black resided in the cocoon of bold, Gryffindor-embellished blankets. In the bed closest to hers, Peter Pettigrew's head poked out of a messy pile of sheets and blankets as he snored gently and shifted in his sleep. Her gaze returned to James Potter as she realized what was conspicuously missing from this image.

"Why isn't it snowing in _your_ room?" she demanded.

His smirk faltered at the accusation and he looked surprisingly sheepish. "Oh, um," he uttered uncertainly as his eyes darted to Remus' bed, "well, Moony was feeling a little…under the weather—and anyhow," he suddenly exclaimed with an excitement she could hardly fathom, "it wasn't for us, it was for _you_."

She was about to make an angry retort, but she was interrupted by the sound of her name.

"Lily?" Remus asked weakly. He moved one of his bed curtains to the side.

_"He really does look ill,"_ Lily thought miserably. His skin was pallid and his hair was matted down with sweat. The ever-present scar on his cheek shone brightly in comparison with his pale complexion. The scar still hadn't healed properly. There were dark bags under his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept for days. She racked her brain for the last time she had seen him, but she was certain he hadn't looked this dreadful yesterday.

"Could you two kindly take this shouting match outside? I'm trying to sleep," he requested tiredly.

"Thank God! They were starting to give me a headache," Sirius groaned from under his mountain of bedding. "_Some _people actually care about getting their beauty sleep, Evans."

Lily narrowed her eyes at Sirius' contribution, but she turned to Remus with an ashamed expression on her face. "Yeah, of course. Sorry, Remus," she whispered, nodding quickly. Remus waved his hand to dismiss her apology and lay back down to try to fall asleep. As soon as the bed curtain fluttered back into place, Lily glared at James and silently motioned for him to step out with her.

"No problem," James replied genially, "I just need to change first." He unabashedly stood up from his bed in nothing but his boxer shorts.

Lily inhaled sharply as she stared at his half-naked body, her eyes lingering for half a moment too long. Coming back to her senses, she hastily turned around and covered her eyes with her fingers. She hoped her already furiously red face would hide her embarrassed blush. "Right," she squeaked, her voice betraying her discomfort.

James chuckled lightly, but didn't comment. She could hear him rummaging for clothes, but she stared resolutely in the other direction toward the common room. Despite her anger, she had to admit it actually looked rather beautiful. It was like their own winter wonderland. The snow glittered from the ceiling and swirled gracefully toward the carpet. She had always loved how serene everything looked when it was covered in snow.

James tapped her on the shoulder, "You can look now, Evans."

Lily rolled her eyes at him and started walking down the boys' staircase. James shut his door behind them and hurried to follow her down to the common room. His strides quickly matched hers and he looked over at her as they walked down in silence. She stared ahead until they reached the bottom of the stairs. Finally turning to look at James, she exclaimed with an annoyed sigh, "Now, honestly, what is all of this? What could have possibly possessed you to create a snowstorm _inside_ Gryffindor tower and more specifically inside _my _room?"

James ruffled his hair nervously and looked a little past her piercing green eyes as he answered. "You said you wanted a white Christmas," he said quietly, but the sound was still loud in the empty common room.

"What?" Lily asked confusedly. She was expecting a ridiculous explanation or a mischievous smirk. She was certainly not expecting that answer and especially not the expression of disappointment on James' face.

James looked straight at her this time. "It was a few days ago. You were talking to Marlene about how you wanted to keep her company over Christmas break because her parents were on an Auror mission and you didn't want her to spend the holiday alone. She kept on telling you to spend it with your family, but you insisted that you wanted to stay. Then, you said something about how you just really hoped it would be a white Christmas this year.

Lily's lips fluttered upward and a smile threatened to flicker on her face, but she quickly rearranged her expression. "Well, I never said to turn my room into Antarctica, you prat!" she said exasperatedly, hitting him in the arm, but it still sounded more like a joke than a complaint.

James smiled guiltily and ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah, sorry about that. I couldn't figure out how to alter the charm so that it could snow regardless of temperature. I'm not as good at charms as you are."

"I'm really not _that_ good," Lily said modestly.

James raised an eyebrow at that. "You got an O with Ministry of Magic high honors on your Charms OWL's, which is practically unheard of. Not to mention the fact that you have gotten nearly every charm right on your first try, not even excluding first year."

"Hmm, yeah, that does sound pretty impressive, doesn't it?" she said with a mischievous grin as she pulled out her wand. "Wingardium Leviosa!" She levitated a snowball straight at James' torso.

"Hey!" James exclaimed with a surprised laugh.

Always up for some fun, he took out his wand as well and hit her with a snowball in return. Using the furniture as natural shields, they lobbed snowball after snowball at each other. Lily bewitched her snowballs to zigzag and follow James around like a Bludger. James opted for a rapid-fire approach by charming his snowballs to constantly attack her side from different angles.

In a rare quiet moment, they both peered over their respective couches and armchairs to assess the enemy lines. James charmed a single snowball to invade Lily's camp. She laughed at James' solitary snowball and got ready for her attack. Waiting for the perfect moment, he yelled, "Engorgio!" and the snowball increased to five times its original size just before it hit its mark.

"Yes!" James exclaimed, thrusting his fist in the air to celebrate his obvious victory.

"Ouch, _ouch_," Lily called out from underneath the giant snowball.

James triumphant smile instantly changed to a look of deep concern. He hurdled over the couch and ran to where Lily fell. "Are you okay?" he pressed.

"_No_, you just hit me with a giant snowball. How do you think I'm feeling? Could you please just help me up?"

"Yeah, of course. Sorry, I didn't know it would hit you so hard," he apologized, extending his hand out to her. She grabbed onto his hand, but her other hand was ready with a fistful of snow. She leaned against him as he pulled her up and—"Ahh! Evans!" James exclaimed.

He jumped up as the wet snow dripped down his back. "I am so going to get you for that one!" he yelled as she zipped to the other side of the common room. Lily darted around one of the couches, but James, star chaser and current captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, was too fast for her. He discarded his wand and dove towards her. The snowball soared in a perfect arc and went—straight _past_ her.

Lily erupted into a fit of giggles as James slid to a stop next to her. He was shaking with laughter as well, his breath curling up into white swirls of cold air while his chest heaved up and down.

Lily turned to face him. "Nice throw! How did you the make Quidditch team again?" she teased.

"Oh, shut up," he remarked with a smile, leaning on his elbows to face her.

_"He was close, _really_ close," _Lily thought. Their noses were practically touching. She moved imperceptibly closer.

"Ahem!" a loud cough sounded from halfway up the staircase. They both looked up as Sirius strolled down the stairs.

_"How long had he been standing there?"_ Lily wondered.

"Getting cozy, you two?" Sirius inquired with raised eyebrows.

Lily blushed and got to her feet. James immediately followed. "What's up, Padfoot?" James seemed slightly annoyed at the interruption, as well.

"Wormtail woke up and started opening his presents already, so you better come on up so we can do this properly, yeah?" Sirius finished his sentence and looked at Lily. "Nice pajamas, Evans," he said with a playful smirk.

Lily looked down at her pajamas and colored slightly. The red in her cheeks clashed wonderfully with her bright red hair and green and white snowflake fleece pajamas. "They're my Christmas pajamas!" she replied, somewhat defensively.

Sirius just chuckled and started to walk up the stairs. "Come on, mate," he called down to James.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be right there," James replied, turning back to face Lily. His eyes locked on a bit of snow in her hair and he lightly brushed it away as she looked on with her ever-persistent blush. He looked at her curiously. "Thanks for the fun time, Evans."

"Likewise," she replied.

He turned to follow Sirius, but before he left he remarked with a wink, "And I like the pajamas." Lily rolled her eyes, but still smiled despite herself before making her way up her own staircase.

She opened the door to her room and walked over to her bed. Marlene rolled over at the sound of the door opening and yawned loudly, stretching her arms over her head. "Lily, am I going crazy or is it snowing in here?" she mumbled, still half-asleep, as she blinked confusedly at the pale, white snow glittering in the morning light.

"It's a long story," Lily answered. And after a pause, "James Potter is _so_ odd."

Marlene grinned at this new development and bundled her blankets around her as she shifted over to let Lily onto the bed with her. "Ah, I see."

"Don't you dare look at me like that, Marlene McKinnon!"

"Look at you like what?" she responded innocently. "So are we going to open the presents, then?"

"Yeah, sure." But Lily knew she had already received the best one. A white Christmas.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any part of the Harry Potter world. That belongs to J.K. Rowling. As does my heart and much of my childhood.


End file.
